Halloween
by MissMoonlightdancer
Summary: Only a short fic about the Halloween festival and what could happen in that special night...


**This is only a random story I felt like writing after finding pics while I was 'googling' a bit, where the Zweilts are all wearing kimonos. It were three pics and on each two persons, Touko and Tsukumo, Yuki and Luca and natuarlly Shusei and Hotsuma (they all look so great^^). Well, I hope you´ll enjoy this short fic.**

**Disclaimer: I don´t own Uragiri wa boku no namae wo shitteiru.  
**

* * *

There´re only a few holidays, I like. Sure, I love Christmas and my birthday or my friend´s birthdays. Easter´s ok, too. But actually, I love those days because I spend my day with my family and my friends. And, I admit it, because I get presents. I´d lie, if I´d say that wouldn´t mean something to me. But it´s not bad to think that way, I guess, since almost everyone loves those holidays for those reasons. But there´s another special holiday.

Mostly, on that day I make party with my friends or in the past, I, too, even ran around, knocking on the front doors of the neighborhood and yelled cheerfully "Trick or treat!" What I mean is Halloween. I love to make creepy costumes and masks. It´s a lot of fun, especially if so many others do it, too. Then we all look like witches, ghosts, demons, monsters and so on. And naturally, the decorating of the houses is fun, too. But unfortunately, we all know that this magic only lasts for one night. One night full of screams and scary. But that also makes it so special, right?

But now imagine. What, if you´re in a world, where there really _are_ demons? What would you do? Would you still celebrate Halloween? Or would you be too frightened? And imagine, Halloween in that world is celebrated with humans _and_ demons? With a great festival, with lots of booths, food, people and attractions like Ferris wheels and horror chambers. Would you like to go to that festival? To be honest, I´d be happy to go. And you?

...

"I told you, I´m not in the right mood for Halloween" Renjou Hotsuma snarled, while he sat on the couch, his chin resting in his palm, his eyes closed, but everyone could see how pissed he was. Unfortunately, his friends, didn´t stop.

"Oh c´mon, Hotsuma, it´ll be fun"

"You can go, I´ll stay here"

"But Takashiro-sama ordered us to watch over the festival till the end, so there won´t happen anything, while humans and demons are celebrating together" Murasame Touko tried to convince him.

"In that case Takashiro gets a bad break, ´cause I won´t go. And now leave me alone"

"Hotsuma, you´re such a jerk!"

"I know, I was already born like that". The girl stuck her tongue out at him and left the living room.

"Hotsuma-kun, I´m sure, it´ll be funny tomorrow"

"Yuki, I was on that festival already a couple of times and I´m not up for all the boozers, who will surely come tomorrow, and bring them into a tent where they can sleep off their hangovers. That job sucks and we don´t even get money. So I rather stay here"

"But I thought, that only happens after four and five o'clock in the morning. You could go home before that, right?"

"No, once we´re there, we have to stay from evening till the next morning. Ok, it´s weekend, but I don´t want to spend my free time like that"

"Hotsuma-kun…"

"Sorry, Yuki"

He stood up and went upstairs to his room, which he shared with his best friend Usui Shusei. The one-year-elder boy sat in front of his desk and did his homework. "Still not finished?"

"Does it look like that?"

"I told you before, don´t overdo it with your homework. The teachers don´t even collect them"

"Unfortunately, my math teacher announced that she´ll collect them on Monday"

"….That´s tough luck"

"Hmmm"

Hotsuma lay down on his bed, his arms crossed behind his head, and dozing off. But before he completely fell asleep, his friend asked "Why don´t you go to the festival tomorrow, like all of us?"

"As I told Touko and Yuki already, I´m not in the mood"

All of the sudden, he felt someone sit down on the sheets. The mattress sunk in only a bit. He opened his eyes and saw the amused face of his friend. "What´s so funny?"

"Am I wrong when I say that the only reason for your no-mood-attitude is that you don´t want to wear a kimono?"

Hotsuma sat up so fast that his and Shusei´s forehand hit each other. "Ow…"

"See, don´t always overreact like that …"

"Sorry"

"I didn´t expect my words to effect such a nice reaction, so I guess I´m right"

"…Are you kidding me? What did you mean with me not wanting to wear a kimono?"

"I mean it as a hint on your embarrassment towards the idea of wearing a kimono"

"I-I told you that´s not it!"

"But before, you´ve never had a problem with boozers and actually, you always enjoyed the Halloween festival"

"Were you eavesdropping while I was talking with Yuki in the living room?"

"Let me put it like this, I can hardly ignore you when you´re talking so loud"

"You _were_ eavesdropping!"

"Even if that was the case, it doesn´t change the fact that I´m right. So, Hotsuma, why do you have a problem with that this year, even though you´ve never mind it before"

Hotsuma pulled a face and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You. Are. Not. Right. _Baka_" he said and put emphasis in each word, like a child.

Shusei chuckled. "It won´t kill you to wear it on one evening. We others have to wear them as well. So tell Yuki that you´ll come along tomorrow"

"I definitely won´t!"

"You will"

"What could make me wear a kimono?"

Shusei smiled in an innocent and at the same time sneaking way. He leaned forward and whispered into Hotsuma´s ear "What if I´d tell you that I like it whenever you wear one? It´s such a rare sight…"

Hotsuma blushed. "S-stop making a fool out of me"

"Oh, but it´s fun to tease you"

"Stop laughing!"

Shusei´s chuckling continued. Hotsuma looked at his handsome face and his shoulders dropped. He couldn't stay mad at him for a long time or rather, he never managed to bring himself to distance himself from his best friend, never mind how much Shusei was teasing him. In the end, it was only fun, nothing was taken to heart. _But still... only once, he could take me serious…_

Maybe Shusei read that thought in his face, when his chuckling stopped and he looked him directly in the eyes.

"I meant it serious, when I said that"

Hotsuma blushed deeper. "Don´t talk nonsense"

Again, Shusei leaned forward, until their noses almost touched. "Why should I lie to you? I meant it exactly the way I said it, you hear me?"

"…"

"So, will you come, too, tomorrow, _Hotsuma_?"

Together with a warm breeze on his lips, the low whisper tickled his ear. It was hard to reject that small request, when his friend was only inches away from him and looking at him with such an intense gaze that his heart began to beat erratically against his ribs. Not even the amused smirk on his face could tease him enough to still hold onto his earlier words. With red cheeks, he rolled his eyes and pretended to be offended, but actually, he was happy about his best friend´s words. He hissed "Yeah, I´m going, satisfied now?" and his best friend burst into laughter.

...

_And it´s only like this thanks to Yuki… He is the reason why Shusei survived the incident with that Duras and why he can laugh like that again. A few months ago he always had had that depressed and emotionless expression and not even I could tell what he was thinking. It was painful to see that and not to be able to do anything. But now… I´m glad he can smile again..._

He looked at the thin figure which vanished in the bathroom. Without noticing, his fingertips touched his lips.

_His breath was so warm… And it was such a weird feeling to have him so close. I'm not used to that anymore, at all. I wonder what he´s thinking right now, in this moment..._ He listened to the sounds from the shower_. _

_Maybe… if…_

_...  
_

"Ugh, I hate kimonos" Hotsuma gripped through clenched teeth.

The kimono almost reached to the ground and the sleeves were quite long, too, but fortunately, the material wasn´t that thick. Probably it was specially fixed for Halloween, so when he´d wear it, he wouldn´t get cold so easily and he wouldn´t start to sweat in it so soon, too. His kimono was green with olive-colored fans on it and a few feather-looking leaves. It didn't look _that_ bad, but running around like that the whole evening and night…_It´s like I´d do Cosplay… _

"Hotsuma, are you ready?" Tsukumo asked and opened the door.

"Yeah, I just have to put on my slippers.

"You can go downstairs already"

"Ok"

Those slippers somehow were a thing between a sandal and flip-flops. They were sand-colored and… well, they didn´t warm up the feet or anything.

_Crap… and it´s October… Tomorrow´s the first of November and still walking around in these slippers… _

But to wear other shoes would look even more stupid, so he had to wear them. Annoyed he put them on and walked out of the room. At the same time, when he laid a hand on the doorknob, the door opened already and hit his head quite painfully.

"Ow... not again…"

"Sorry, Hotsuma" a voice said. He looked up and saw Shusei standing in front of him. His best friend wearied a white kimono with green leaves and twigs on it. And honestly… it really didn´t look bad at him. Hotsuma stared at his best friend with big eyes, unable to move. Shusei frowned, like he was worried about Hotsuma´s mind.

"Everything ok with you?"

"Uhm… yes, naturally…"

"Then could you please let me in? I forgot something"

"Er… sure, yes…"

Totally dumbfounded, he stepped aside. Shusei still looked at him like he had gone insane and Hotsuma violently shook his head. _Jeez, I should stop to stare like that… It´s no big deal to see him in a kimono and on top of that, it´s not the first time…_ But he could hardly get his eyes off his best friend, who walked over to his night table and took the wristwatch, which lay there. "Otherwise no one of us knows what time it is again, like last year. It took four hours until you finally understood that I _didn´t_ know what time it was" he said and his voice held slight sarcasm in it. "Hmm…"

"Well, let´s go now"

...

They left their room and on the way downstairs, their slippers made a strange sound on the tiles. It sounded like you´d hit resonant woods against each other. Downstairs, the others already waited for them. "Here, put it around your weapons, so they´ll look like normal ones" Tachibana said and gave each of them a red ribbon. Except from Yuki everyone called their weapons. Only Tsukumo was a bit confused, when his pistol 'Knell' transformed into a sword.

"They all look like samurai-swords" Touko said and looked at her 'Eon'.

"Hmm, it´s more handy than before" Hotsuma murmured and put it onto his belt (or however that piece of cloth around the waist at kimonos is called).

"Before I liked it more. Now it´s so long" Shusei said and pulled one of his two swords 'Kurai Kuro' out of the scabbard.

"Now you know what Hotsuma and I always have to carry around us, whenever we´re in a battle" Touko said.

"Yeah"

Luca, who also wearied a kimono, reminded them to hurry a bit. "Otherwise we´ll be late"

...

They had to walk maybe twenty to thirty minutes through the forest around the Tasogarekan, when they found the path which would lead them to the festival terrain. Already a few hundred meters away, they heard laughter and music.

"Shusei, what time is it?" Tsukumo asked.

"Strange, how come did I already wait for that kind of question…? Well, it´s half past seven"

"So we´ll see our beds again in approximately thirteen or fourteen hours. Happy Halloween, guys..."

"Hotsuma, was there really a bit of self-irony towards our situation?" Touko asked with a smirk.

"No, just your imagination…" Hotsuma grinned back.

"Anyway, what made you change your mind? I thought you didn´t want to come" Yuki asked curiously.

Hotsuma scratched his neck and by chance, caught Shusei´s amused gaze. "Against some hand-tight arguments, I can´t say anything"

"Oh..."

"Well, at least I can eat those roasted almonds… I like them… ok, if after one hour there still are some" Hotsuma said and grinned towards Tsukumo, who smiled back.

"I´ll make sure to leave some for you…"

"Good to know…"

They laughed, when Touko suddenly asked "By the way, Hotsuma, why are you walking to weird?"

"I'm _not _walking weird… It's only a bit… cold down there" he said annoyed.

She blinked several times. "Cold?"

"Yeah, well, you´re a girl, you wear skirts almost every day. But _I'm _a guy and it´s a bit unfamiliar to have it open down there, you get me now?"

"Huh?"

"What he tries to say is that it´s unfamiliar to him that it´s so drafty in his nether area" Tsukumo chuckled.

"Thanks a lot, Tsukumo" Hotsuma said with a sour smile.

"You´re welcome"

...

When they reached the festival terrain, they split up in three groups, otherwise they wouldn´t be able to observe the whole area. First were Yuki with Luca, second were him with Shusei and third were Tsukumo and his sister. They wished each other a nice time (it wasn´t clear if they´d see each other in that night another time) and separated. "We have to watch the area around the Ferris wheel, right?" Hotsuma asked and tried not to lose orientation in the large crowd of people and demons. Many people wearied kimonos, but others also ran around in costumes, like werewolves, wizards, witches, monsters or ghosts. The candles on each booth glowed bright and gave everything that warmly-creepy atmosphere, what he loved so much at Halloween.

"There´s a large group of Duras" Shusei suddenly whispered and pointed at a group near a mirrored gallery.

"They don´t look like they´re up to something already, but we´d better watch them the next few hours"

"Yeah"

On Halloween, you could mostly recognize Duras because they often had colorful and beautiful painting on their faces and arms and hands. It looked foreign and at the same time like out of a fantasy-world. Or the Duras wearied masks, like fox- or cat-masks. And sometimes they talked in a foreign language, which they couldn´t understand. The next hours were full of fun and excitement, where he and Shusei had do watch over the Ferris wheel and the booth around time they had to help a small girl who lost her mother. Another time they had to catch a pickpocket and take him out of the festival terrain. Except those incidents, till midnight everything was ok.

...

"Crap, why are those roasted almonds so expensive? They cost half the last year!" he ranted.

The owner of the booth only rose his eyebrows "Wanna buy some or not? If not, back off!"

Hotsuma frowned and was about to say something not friendly, when Shusei laid a hand on his shoulder and whispered into his ear "Just let him be" Hotsuma threw an angry look at the owner and turned around. When they were already twenty meters away, he began to curse"Did you see that old fag! How can he be so rude to his customers! Does he not know the word 'polite'?"

"And that´s coming from you… Well, just buy your roasted almonds somewhere else; here are enough salesmen, anyway"

Hotsuma rolled his eyes, but agreed. Unfortunately, the next three hours they had to carefully show the guys, who were already drunk, the way from the festival terrain to the streets outside the forest. It was a bad job, but someone simply had to take care of all the poor, disoriented guys, so they had to do that. Mostly the men were annoyingly talkative and rambled about every crap they thought was pissed and at circa 3 o´clock in the morning, he just shoved them onto the path which led through the forest to quickly get rid of them.

...

After that, he leaned against the back wall of a booth and tried to straighten his kimono. He was exhausted and hungry, but first of all, he wanted to avoid the boozers, so he stayed there a few minutes.

"Here you are hiding…" suddenly familiar voice startled him.

He turned around and saw Shusei approaching. "Is the guy you had to take care of finally out of the terrain?" he asked.

"Yes, but I had to accompany him the whole way to the streets. I mean, there is not one single sign on the way through the forest, only at the corner to the street, but he even managed to hit exactly that one and got a plum-big goose egg on his forehead. I was really impressed"

Hotsuma laughed and Shusei leaned next to him against the back wall. "Anyway, are you hungry?" his best friend asked.

"A bit- why?"

"Here, I got them for you" He reached into his kimono and held roasted almonds in his hand. Hotsuma´s eyes began to sparkle. "Wow! Thanks, Shusei"

"You´re welcome"

He took the paper-bag (or however that thing where they're carried around is called, I´m sorry for the bad translation, but I don´t even know the name in German :P) and picked one brown, sweet almond out. Shusei ate a few, too, and they both were in no mood to move any further anymore. But when the laughter and shouts from the Ferris wheel got louder, they sighed and got back to work. The night wasn't over yet.

...

Eventually, it was already quarter past 4; they met on the way from the street back to the festival. Shusei was on the way back and Hotsuma was pushing a guy in the right direction. "I guess this won´t stop until, morning" Hotsuma hissed and gave the man a painful kick in his ass, what the guy didn´t even notice. "He´ll find the way back, on his own" Hotsuma simply said and turned around, to go back together with his friend.

"I think, after 4 o´clock in the morning, Halloween´s not funny anymore" Shusei said quietly.

"You could rather compare it to a normal festival. Only the costumes remind one of Halloween" Hotsuma snarled pissed and ran a hand through his hair. "Actually, Halloween is popular for the fact that nothing´s the way it seems and in that night, there´s a special atmosphere in the air. But unfortunately, so many people forget that, once they´re already here and have a few cans of beer down. It´s sad to watch that" he continued.

"What could you do against it?"

"Nothing"

"See"

But at some point, they got off the path to the festival and walked through the dark trees. Here it was cool and quiet and nothing could be heard from the festival. "Where are we, Shusei?" Hotsuma asked.

"I guess we lost orientation, but we just have to go back"

"That's funny… all the trees look the same"

"I know"

Hotsuma frowned; he couldn´t see anything. "Shusei, where are you?" he asked. His voice sounded a bit nervous. He waited for an answer, but there came none. "Shusei, that´s not funny!" he hissed and stepped back, but somehow he fell over his own slippers and fell backwards onto the moist grass.

His hands grabbed a bunch of grass and he sat up, but suddenly, he felt two warm hands on his own. Someone was leaning right above him but it was still too dark to see the one who it was, but he could tell by only hearing the way the person breathed and the way the heart beat through the wrists that it was his friend.

"You should see yourself when you can´t see anything. Your expression is quite interesting" Shusei mused.

With his 'eyes of gods' he could see in darkness perfectly. Hotsuma´s own heartbeat skipped and his hands got hot underneath Shusei´s warm, soft ones. His friend surely noticed, but didn´t mention anything. Hotsuma didn´t see his friend, but he could sense Shusei´s gaze upon himself. He blushed and mentally slapped himself for acting so…obviously embarrassed. It was nothing abnormal to be so close to his partner, right?

If you´d both still be in elementary school, then yes, but when you´re both already youths… I´d find it a bit… ominous…

Hotsuma felt Shusei´s warm breath on the tip of his nose and his eyes searched for his friend´s face, but even though he was right in front of him, he saw nothing but darkness. But now, he also felt a light weight on his chest and believed his friend was leaning down more and more. That fact sent shudders down his spine and he closed his eyes. His hands were shaking already, but Shusei´s hands felt warm and comforting the whole time, like candles in the dark.

"_What are you scared of?" _

Hotsuma didn´t know if he had only thought that or Shusei has asked him that loudly. But his answer was the same

"_I don't know. Actually… nothing" _

The next thing he knew was the feeling of soft, warm and slightly sweet-tasting lips on his own. He opened his eyes and believed to see two sparks in the darkness. After a few moments, their lips began to move, slowly, carefully, almost reluctant.

Hotsuma´s heartbeat was so loud in his ears and he believed, anytime his heart could explode out of happiness, excitement and something that he´d later maybe call love. Sure, he felt still insecure and terribly vulnerable, and he knew that his partner was feeling the same, but now, there was something new, something that´d later maybe outweigh those feelings. And for now… he just tried to really understand what was happening in that instant, but it was too great, too much, too important to get it in such a sacred, forbidden moment.

He didn´t know when his lips opened and let a hot, moist tongue slip into his mouth, but he did so, too, and they danced around each other, caressing and exploring, in a slow pace, with light, careful movements, as if in a blink of an eye, they could destroy everything again. Behind the warmth they shared now, there was still a lot of insecurity and fear of the new found feelings and sensations, but maybe, later, these feelings would turn into passion and heat, but now, they let the very special atmosphere of the Halloween night lead their actions, movements and explorations.

In a few hours, Halloween would be over, the last farewell of the fall, and the winter would slowly take its place. But inside them, the scary stayed, keeping their secret safe and secure. Till the next Halloween.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed^^**

**And to Shusei, who laughed quite a bit in this story, I find him so cute when he´s laughing^^ In chap. 37 you can see it after he´s teasing Hotsuma :) He always has that depressed look on his face, but he should laugh more :)  
**

**Please review^^  
**


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